Niantic has announced that Pokémon GO’s next live event won’t be tied to any particular holiday, but rather is simply a week-long celebration of Kanto Pokémon, ie. the originals from Red and Blue, which will be appearing more frequently in the wild.

This seemed like a pretty random choice for an event, but the more I think about it, the more I understand what Niantic is trying to do here.

With the release of Mew, for the first time, all 151 original Red/Blue/Kanto Pokémon are in Pokémon GO. That means you can have a full generation collection, which hasn’t been possible for any gen since the game launched. Gen 2 is still missing its mythics. Gen 3 is still missing mythics and a few other Pokémon, but now Gen 1 is totally complete.

The idea of this event seems to be to help you try to fill those last spots in your Pokedex. In addition to more Gen 1 Pokémon in the wild, the event will have raid bosses that are more rare Gen 1s like Aerodactyl and Snorlax, that players might have missed.

​I understand why an event like this is necessary because it really is hard to keep hunting for those last few Gen 1s you’re missing thanks to hundreds of Gen 2 and 3 Pokémon now in the game. You have a way, way lower chance of encountering these Pokémon in the wild or hatching them from eggs, so this is a good idea, to take things back to launch-era for a reset.

​As part of the event, you’ll be getting double candy from catches, so that means that you can evolve these Gen 1s into their final forms more easily. Combine that with Pinap berries and you should have all the evolutions you need in no time. The event will also come with, naturally, some microtransactions, new boxes that contain raid passes, among other items.

Between this event, Mew, and the ability to get Gen 1 legendaries from research like Moltres, it really is achievable for almost anyone to finally have a full Gen 1 Pokedex. The hardest aspect, of course, remains regional exclusives, as even though some have made their way around the world (Farfetch’d) others have not (Mr. Mime, Kangaskhan). It’s weird that I can have a Mew in my roster, yet Mr. Mime continues to elude me for a year and a half.

This event will start at 1 PM PDT today, April 10th, and will run until April 17th. That will give you an entire week to bolster your Gen 1 line-up, and be sure to keep doing your research for a shot at more legendaries, as anyone could crop up as an encounter reward next time. Also, check back here later, as I will be keeping track of any shinies that may show up with this event.